Social Work Child Welfare Practice

This textbook adds a contemporary perspective on the child welfare system, integrating content on anti-racism, diversity, equity, inclusion, and rights-based approaches to professional child welfare practice. Section I covers child welfare history and services, including types of abuse and neglect, historical and current policies, and careers in the child welfare field. Section II gives a broad overview of child welfare practice, emphasizing decolonizing approaches, social justice, engagement and assessment, and specific child welfare topics such as placement, placement disruptions, attachment/separation, and trauma, and addressing the needs of foster children in school settings. It reviews child welfare processes from reporting through investigating, considering possible outcomes, including supportive services for families, removal from the home, relative or foster placement, group homes, family reunification, termination of parental rights, adoption, and aging out of the foster care system. Section III recognizes that child welfare practice does not exist in a vacuum. It examines the intersection of child welfare with other critical systems, including health care, legal/correctional systems, immigration, and military families. The section also incorporates content on trauma-informed care and secondary trauma. Section IV focuses on decolonizing content and seeks to infuse socially just and nonracist practices, cultural competence, and cultural humility. It emphasizes the role of culture in understanding families. It addresses social justice issues that permeate the child welfare field, including poverty, racial disproportionality, challenges facing LGBTQ+ youth and adults, and the discriminatory treatment of immigrant and mixed-status families.